A correspondent of al-Ikhbariya the official television news channel in Syria, was killed Wednesday in the east of the country by "terrorists", a source told AFP. Cameraman Mohammad Al- Ashram "was targeted by terrorists" in Deir Ezzor, the largest city of eastern Syria, said the channel director Imad Sara. The journalist was filming when he was fatally hit by two bullets, one in the chest, he added.

At the end of June, three journalists and four guards were killed in an attack against the headquarters of this news channel in the province of Damascus.

Homs attack

Meanwhile, according to a newspaper close to the regime, the Syrian army will launch a final assault on Homs and its province. Neighborhoods where the rebels are holed up have become the targets by the army artillery in the past five days. Thousands of civilians are trapped in the region, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

According to the Syrian Al-Watan and Thawra dailies, the army has recovered five new areas that were previously in the hands of the rebel army, the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The district specifically targeted by government forces is Khaldiye. The official television said on Tuesday that the Syrian army had entered this area. It is in this area that most of the fighters of the Free Syrian Army are located, according to several witnesses contacted by telephone.

According to Abu al-Rami al-Himsi, spokesman of the Council of the Revolution in Homs, the bombings in the area have become violent over the past five days. The Syrian army would target other areas of the city soon, expected the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Shells were fired into several areas including Bab al Hud, and Chiya al-Djouret Koussour. Homs is of paramount importance to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Its province is the largest and most strategic in the country. Bordering Lebanon and Iraq, it connects the northern and southern Syria.